The Ferris Wheel
by Penamesolen
Summary: Black/White. The ferris wheel scene from the mute White/Hilda/Touko's point of view. Includes high hippies and bad Saw references.


**DISCLAIMER: I do not own **_**Pokémon Black/White**_**.**

**Let's be honest here, N is a psycho. Sure, he is a sympathetic psycho, but in general, if one goes out of OMG HE'S HOT!111 mode and reads the dialogue, he is a creep. So yeah, I like his character, and I admit I sometimes ship NxHilda/Touko, but not in the romantic way, because there is no way these two can be star-crossed lovers. And I ship the cover names like White and Diamon instead of Hilda and Lucas that they keep giving them. It was fun and easier when they did that.**

If there was one thing that came from being mute, White thought, it was that it had made her patient and a quick thinker. At least that was what she thought, and ever since she lost her voice and had to learn sign language, she had tried to find ways to think positively. Like how her best friends Cheren and Bianca had showed their true friendship by not leaving her, and instead dedicated a lot of time to learn sign and body language. That time they arrived beside her to the sign language lesson was one of the few times she cried in joy after losing her voice.

Of course, it was not always easy. She had been nervous at first to start on a Pokémon journey, because of how hard it would be for her to command her Pokémon in battle. Luckily, it turned out to work all right, especially with her Snivy by her side. She had to note herself to never stop listening to "The Pokémon Whisperer" and his advices about Pokémon's abilities, even if some of the advices did not work or were down-right too ridiculous for her to try.

Her luck was beginning to sink when she properly began her journey alone, with neither Cheren nor Bianca by her side to help her communicate with other people who did not understand sign language. She somehow made it work by basic physical movements like nods and shakes, although the first time she met this "N" person, she was glad to have Cheren by her side, even if he could not help her much when N challenged her to a battle. That one time she was entirely alone with him, she was anxious the whole time as he talked about… well, whatever he had said. White had already stamped him as a high hippy, and had discarded everything he said as nonsense. Thus, she did not remember much from the encounter.

It all changed when she came to Nimbasa City, and the elderly man desperately asked her to help him from a pair of Team Plasma members. Although she tried her best to get them away without a voice, as soon as they tried to snatch her Pokéballs, she decided to be serious and battle them. _No one dares to try to take my friends away,_ she so much wanted to yell at them, but satisfied herself by letting her Pokémon's fierce fighting do the talking.

The members of Team Plasma started to run, and still wanting to stop them from hurting anybody else, she was ready to follow them, until the old man stopped her to thank her. _Please don't worry about it, I did what everyone would have done,_ White tried to sign to him in a hurry, but unfortunately the old man did not understand and instead made her wait as he retrieved a bicycle to give her. Realizing that it would give her an easier time to chase Team Plasma, she thanked him with a hug before running off toward the direction she saw the criminals run.

_Please be somewhere, please be somewhere…_ she thought as she stepped out of the bicycle to scan the area better. Then she collided into a soft wall, and as she lost her grip on the bicycle and tried to sign an apology to whoever she had walked into, she shrieked a loud, "_Oh, crap, why is this happening to me?"_ inside her head. The person she had hit was a certain tall man with long, green hair with a cap on his head and a white shirt on him. That N hippie. As she hoped he had understood her apology, or was too high to know why she apologized or even too high to notice the clash, she bent down to pick up her bicycle constantly thinking, "_Please don't remember my face, please don't remember my face, please, please, _please_ don't remember my face_". But as she was to hurry to get away from the weird man, she was stopped when a hand hugged her shoulder, and she was forced to turn around to look at the twenty-years old's face – a mix of amusement, innocence and confusion, which only made White want to get away even more.

With an ever so amused voice, N spoke: "Are you searching for Team Plasma?" _Yes! Yes, I am! So please let go of me!_ Being the polite mute, of course, she did not say anything rude; only nodded, quickly to show that she did not have all day. However, instead of letting her go, he spoke further. "They ran off to the center of the park." _And where is the center of the park, then? I just came to this stupid city and I didn't get to look around before being harassed by Team Plasma! Again!_ Come to think of it, she should probably have reported to the police instead of running after some potentially dangerous criminals. The journey alone must have made her more stressful than what she had first believed.

N must have seen her confused look, because he walked past her while still holding her shoulder, lightly making her follow him half a step before letting go. "Come with me." That was all he said. _Wait, are you going to help me?_ God no, please, anybody but N. But White followed anyway. Nobody in the park seemed to have seen anything, and she knew that N knew at least a little about Team Plasma, so maybe she could trust him…? But as they jogged through the street, people becoming fewer and fewer, and White felt a pit in her stomach. Now it was to remember those self-defense courses her mother signed her into when she decided to go on a journey alone. If N tried to do anything to her, she might have a survival chance.

In the end, the hippie suddenly stopped before the giant Pokéball-resembling Ferris wheel that White had seen before entering the city. He seemed to look around them, before turning to the girl and said, "Not here," and White had to blink furiously at him. _That is all? Because I have to do some, I dunno, useful today. _"Let's ride the Ferris wheel and look for them there." Again, she had to blink. It seemed like a good plan, actually, but was it safe to ride the wheel with N? Then she reminded herself that, despite _maybe_ being high, he had been a pretty decent gentleman to her, and the most violent thing he had done was to challenge her to a Pokémon battle. She had encountered much ruder and crazier challenges from other trainers to make that really count, sans the whole "your Pokémon speaks to me" thing. But she had met Pokémon Rangers who hid in bushes all week just to look at Pokémon, so a Pokémon Trainer claiming he knew what Pokémon thought could not be much worse.

Beside, it somehow calmed her to listen to him telling his interest of the Ferris wheel as they entered one of the cabins. Hearing him explain things that she thought no person on drugs would know to say was enough to temporally convince her that he was a nice hippie who actually did not support drugs.

As the cabin door closed and she felt the Ferris wheel started to go, White took a strong grip on whatever she could grab. The way the cabin turned back and forth made her stomach curl, and she halfway regretted going inside. But it calmed down soon enough, and she could relax and look out to see if she could spot any Team Plasma member already.

If only it could last.

Before she could be completely distracted by the beautiful view, N's voice was heard and stopped all her thoughts.

"Let's start from the beginning." Deciding to not look over at him, mostly because the voice was creepy, but also because she wanted to find those Plasma guys, she tried to listen instead. What important could he say, anyway?

"I am the king of Team Plasma."

Hearing the sentence said, she widened her eyes and slowly, ever so carefully, turned her head toward the green-haired man. He sat there, looking at her as if he expected her to react. The nausea that had been there a short moment ago returned, and White found it difficult to breathe.

Quickly, the brunette snapped from her shock, and looked around the cabin to find a way out, despite the knowledge that they were far too high from the ground for her to get away without breaking anything. She now regretted transferring her Tranquill to Professor Juniper.

It did not seem like N was bothered by her poor attempt to escape, as he just looked out in to the horizon when they were closing to the top, mumbling to himself, explaining his relationship with some dude, and his wonder of the Pokémon population out there. The rest of the ride was in silence, and White used everything she knew of self-control to stay where she sat. _I can't move too much so high in the air, the cabin might lose balance,_ she reminded herself as sweat started to roll down her neck._ He would have killed me if he wanted me dead, so I must just be silent and run as soon as the door opens, or else he might just decide to kill me early. _And then rape her dead body, White added with disgust as she just got sicker in the gut. No more _Saw_ movies for her, she swore to herself. It extended her imagination the wrong way, just like Bianca had warned her.

Finally, after what felt like years, they were back to the ground and White spurted out of the cabin, ignoring the worsening nausea, only to be met by the two members from Team Plasma. _No, no, no, no, no, no! Please, no, please!_

"Lord N!" One of them said as N calmly exited behind White. The other continued, "Are you safe?"

N seemed like he ignored them, turning toward White as he said, "I'm just fine. My followers, who collaborate to save Pokémon," White was too sick and scared to care about the whole "saving Pokémon by stealing and kicking them" thing equaling saving them. "I must protect them, too." He then turned his head to look at the grunts. "While I fight, you two get away from here."

_Wait, no, you can't leave me alone with this sick freak!_ White wanted to say, looking at the two grunts with desperation. She never thought there would be a moment where she preferred Team Plasma over anyone else. She could feel one of her Pokéballs shake, and she knew that it was her Snivy who tried to tell her that it was ready to defend her, but it still did not soothe her like it normally would.

As the grunts ran off, N looked back at her, his face now filled with hope and curiosity that helped frightening the girl even more. "So, White," he started with a smile, "Do you understand my thoughts?"

_What thoughts? That you're a sick psycho on drugs who, who, who freaking leads, no, is the "king" of some, some crazy criminal organization that claims they're doing good when they're hurting humans and Pokémon alike?_ Despite understanding his thoughts, she shook her head while backing backwards, hoping to get enough space between them so that Snivy could attack without her getting hurt, too.

The answer seemed to hurt the man, though, as he frowned and said, "That's disappointing. But I must still fight you, even with no chance of winning, I shall fight for the sake of Team Plasma!"

And so the man threw his Pokémon at her, and in reflex she did the same with her Snivy. They battled hard, but it seemed like N was more amused than serious about the fight, which several times made White consider just to bail and run away from him. But her want for battles refused, and so she stayed, watching her Pokémon defeat and be defeated, and when the battle was over, witnessed how Snivy evolved into Servine. But the happiness was short-lived when she remembered what situation she was in. She was about to make a run for it when N started walking to her. Remembering the imagines of him killing and raping her if she tried something, White decided to stand still.

"You are strong," he stated, but there was no impression in the voice, as if he had been expecting White to win from the beginning. She still saw the seriousness in his eyes, though, as he continued, "But there is a future I must change, and so…"

White had tried to get away when the panic took over, but N was now right before her, looking down on her with the courage and determination of a child, and with a hand on her shoulder, she could not escape.

"I shall surpass the Champion," he said with the assuring smile, "I will become an undefeatable opponent, and I will liberate Pokémon from all trainers!" White tried to get away, but it was useless, and the man tightened his hold on her shoulder as he said with an almost disgusted voice, "But you wish to be together with Pokémon…!" He looked down for a second before again eyeing her, letting her shoulder go. "If that is your desire, then collect all the gym badges and come to the Pokémon League; once there, try to stop me!"

Then he finally turned around to walk away. However, he stopped after some meters to say one final thing.

"If you do not feel as strongly… you shall not stop me."

And then he was gone. White wanted to do something; she did not know what, but being frozen where she stood made doing _anything_ better.

Suddenly, she felt something going up her throat, and she ran to the bushes, where she threw up.

She had been close to the leader of Team Plasma, the organization that treated Pokémon Trainers horribly and kidnapped Pokémon from their trainers. The organization that were willing to hurt and possibly kill. The very leader, who at first seemed like a childish guy possibly on drugs, approved of this and supported them, for the sake of freeing Pokémon, apparently not even considering the Pokémon's feelings. And now he seemed to have an interest in her, or worse, view her as an enemy. The girl sighed after the horrible taste in her mouth started to go away, and sat on the ground.

White was just a mute girl who wanted an adventure and gain new friends in Pokémon, why did this have to be so complicated? Why could she not just travel around and do what she wanted? Was that too much to ask for?

As she wondered about when the problems started, N's face reappeared in her mind; White swallowed the second plate of lunch and rose from the ground. Her Pokémon needed medical attention and, regardless if she wanted or even had a part of this mess, she needed to help her Pokémon the best ways she knew, and prepare them as good as possible for the future.


End file.
